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China’s Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the country’s four main festival, and also inspires record breaking.

Its name is due to it taking place on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar to coincide with a full moon.

A colourful celebration which dates back 400 years, the festival involves offering and moon worshiping and gazing as well as eating mooncakes (more about a new mooncake record below) as people gather to celebrate the harvest.

As this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival has seen another record set, here are five records relating to the moon or titles set during the celebrations.

mid autumn festival Buzz Aldrin

First men on the Moon

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." 

They're the immortal words spoken by Neil Armstrong as he and Buzz Aldrin astronauts made history on 20 July 1969. 

Since Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon, only 10 other people have followed in their footsteps, which highlights how difficult the mission is 

The Last man on the Moon is Gene Cernan who left on 14 December 1972, just three years after Armstrong and Aldwin made their momentous steps. 

Lunar Roving Vehicle

Lunar speed record

As well as being the Last man on the moon, Gene Cernan's visit in December 1972 also saw him achieve the Lunar speed record at the wheel of Apollo 17 Lunar Rover (LRV-3).

With fellow US-astronaut Harrison Schmitt as his passenger, the pair travelled at 18 km/h (11.18 mph) on 13 December 1972 while driving near the "Sherlock" block field about 1 km (0.62 mi) east of their landing site.

This surpassed the 17-km/h (10.5-mph) lunar speed recorded in the transcripts of Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charles Duke (featured in the video above) on 23 April 1972.

mid autumn festival largest mooncake

Largest mooncake

You may not get close to the moon during Mid-Autumn Festival, but it is absolutely necessary to eat mooncakes.

On 19 September 2013 a 2496.4-kg (5,502.74-lb) mooncake was made by 15 professional chefs in three days, with a diameter of 2.57 m.

A total of 100 grams of oil, 300 kg of sugar, 500 kg of flour, 4000 egg yolks and 2,300 kg of lotus seed paste were used.

mid autumn festival Most mooncakes sold online in 24 hours

Most mooncakes sold on a single online platform in 24 hours 

As you can tell, mooncakes are hugely popular during the celebrations.

For this year's festivities, online retailer Tmall, together with other mooncake merchants, set a new record by selling 11,075,071 on 13 September.

According to statistics, the top five cities for online mooncake consumption are Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chongqing with the three favourite flavours being chocolate, meat and ham among those born in the 1990s.

mid autumn festival rabbit dressing

Largest gathering of people dressed as rabbits

In ancient Chinese mythology, it was said that there was a rabbit on the moon with a white body, so it was called "jade rabbit".

This kind of white rabbit holds a jade pestle and kneels down to pound medicine which can lead to immortality. Over time, the jade rabbit has become synonymous with the moon.

On 1 April 2018 1,119 children dressed up as cute rabbits.

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